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Every Life is a Story
    A place to share my own family stories

Monday, August 18, 2008

Bad Omens?

I am not generally a superstitious person. I don't really believe that black cats are bad luck or that breaking a mirror is bad. I will occasionally toss spilled salt over my shoulder, but that's just for something to do more than actual BELIEF.

Sometimes, however, things happen that really make you wonder about bad luck or bad omens.

My husband's stepsister got married a few years ago. They planned a beautiful outdoor wedding in a lush area of Colorado right at the end of the summer. A lot of money had been spent on the wedding. Everything was planned and choreographed, right down to a romantic releasing of butterflies at the end of the ceremony.

The day of the wedding, of course it was raining. But this wasn't just a light summer rain. This was a deluge. The wedding was delayed with the hopes of the rain lightening up so that the bride could make it from the dressing room out to the pavilion without getting soaked. It didn't happen, so the bride arrived in a mad dash with umbrellas held over her head.

The ceremony proceeded as planned, with people crowding under the pavilion while tables and tablecloths were soaked beyond hope of saving. Determined to keep to their plans, they proceeded to release the butterflies, in spite of the rain. All of the children gathered around to watch the butterflies fly out of the box. When the box was opened, however, the butterflies weren't flying anywhere. It was too cold, and they just laid there. So the bride tipped the box upside down to hopefully wake them up. They fell out and flopped on the ground, unmoving.

The children, however, tense with the excitement of seeing the butterflies, all rushed in as the box was tipped up, hoping to perhaps catch a butterfly. Instead, they trampled them.

I would love to say that the wedding flourished in spite of it's disastrous beginnings, but the wedding lasted not much longer than the lifespan of the butterflies.

Maybe they should list butterflies on the list of things that bring bad luck. Like black cats, mirrors, ladders, and spilled salt.

"To be a person
is to have a story to tell."

- Isak Dinesen  

 
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